Authorities have not named the victims or the gunman, but said the man lived in Blair County. It is not yet known if the victims were targeted or random.

The shootings in Frankstown Township, in central Pennsylvania, took place between 9am and 9.30am yesterday.

At 9:30am, Newtown in Connecticut held a moment of silence in remembrance of the 20 children and 6 teachers shot dead exactly one week ago.

"It's going to take us some time to put this all together ... and know exactly what occurred," said Lt Col Bivens.

The first victim was inside Juniata Valley Gospel Church when bullets ripped through a window. The gunman then entered and shot one of two women before he left.

Coincidentally, the news broke as the NRA held a press conference to break its silence on the Newtown shootings.

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Conflicting messages: A demonstrator from CodePink holds up a banner

The powerful pro-gun lobby's vice-president Wayne LaPierre insisted the only way to stop further tragedies was MORE guns.

He also appeared to blame the media, rap music and video games, rather than weaponry, for the tragedy and asked "when did 'gun' automatically become a bad word?"

Mr LaPierre called for armed security from police officers in every school and said "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun", not apparently considering that another option might be for neither the good or bad guy to have guns in the first place.

His rambling speech was interrupted by protesters from the Codepink group holding banners reading 'Blood On Your Hands' and 'NRA Killing Our Kids'.